Castiel Takes A Picture With A Teenager
by rabbit keys
Summary: One-shot. Written for a vocab story. Castiel is in Lawrence, Kansas looking for his father when he accidentally stumbles upon a man robbing a girl at gunpoint. She takes his picture and seems to have a fondness for scientific words. Early season five, pre "Lucifer raises Death" or whatever.


_Written for a vocab story. Takes place mid season five, before Jo and Ellen's death. Castiel does not belong to me (though I wish he did). He belongs to the creators of Supernatural._

* * *

Castiel walked through downtown Lawrence, Kansas slowly, studying everything in the town. Dean and Sam had been born here. He held up Dean's pendant high in the air, studying it, hoping desperately for some sort of sign that his father was nearby.

Nothing.

Castiel resisted a sigh and continued to walk. He was hoping to find some abandoned backstreet where he could teleport away without being seen by normal humans. Dean had scolded him for vanishing where normal passerby could see. It was a Very Bad Thing. Unfortunately, instead of finding an abandoned alley, he came upon an alley where a female teenage human was being robbed by a thickly-built male human with a small gun.

"It upsets me when humans pick on weaker humans for the mere purpose of satisfying their own greed," Castiel said in monotone as he strode towards the two humans.

"Beat it, freak, you didn't see nothin'." The male human snarled.

Castiel vanished and reappeared right in between the man and the girl. He pressed two fingers to the man's temple just as the man squeezed the trigger of the gun in surprise. The bang of the gunshot echoed around them, the girl gasped, and the man collapsed to the stone ground.

"Oh my god, oh my god, are you okay?!" The girl shrieked, grabbing Castiel by the shoulders. Castiel allowed her to spin him around to face her. Blood dripped down from the wound in his chest, staining his shirt and trenchcoat. Luckily, the tie was left untouched by red. He would've preferred it if the human hadn't shot him, but oh well. He started to close up the wound, flesh knitting together around the rapidly disintegrating piece of metal embedded there until not even a microscopic scar remained.

"Oh my god. You- you're healed. You got shot, but you're okay. How is that possible? That's not possible!" The teenager swallowed nervously and adjusted her spectacles. She was half a foot shorter than Castiel's vessel and had straight, bobbed brown hair. The camera (Castiel was pretty sure that's what it was called) hanging around her neck was large, with many buttons and a pretty black sheen.

"I am an Angel of the Lord," Castiel replied by way of explanation. He took out his cellphone. He should probably return to Dean soon, since his father wasn't here and he didn't know where to go next.

The girl frowned. "No way. Hey, are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital? Or at least get those clothes washed? Oh, and I'm Karen, by the way."

Castiel snapped his finger and the bloodstains vanished, the hole in his clothes closed up, and the wrinkles in his shirt smoothed. "It is true. I am an angel."

"So, let me get this straight. You're an angel who can teleport, make people pass out, heal wounds, and stitch up clothing, but you own a cell phone and still can't figure out how to tie a tie properly." Karen raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

Castiel blinked in surprise and looked down at his tie. "Is this not correct?"

Karen chuckled. "Tell ya what. I'll fix your tie if you let me take a picture of you. Oooh, and tell me your name? I want to remember you with a name instead of just 'trenchcoat man.' You saved my life. I bet he would've killed me or abducted me so I couldn't go to the police with his description."

"You would have survived. He wasn't smart enough to cover his tracks that way, and all he wanted was your wallet and camera."

"Well, you saved my wallet and camera, then. Come on, one picture? Please?" Karen begged. Castiel didn't know why it was such a big deal, but it couldn't hurt anyone, he supposed.

"I am Castiel," he said. "Please help me with the tie."

"Mom always said angels were watching over me," Karen murmured absentmindedly as she untied his navy blue tie and began to re-tie it. "I only half believed her. I mean, angels being real? Not likely. But here you are, in the flesh." She frowned. "Speaking of which, is this your normal appearance?"

"No, Jimmy is just a vessel." Castiel admitted. "My true form is about the size of your Chrysler Building."

"Chrysler Building." Karen swallowed. "Right. Obviously."

Castiel frowned with a bit of concern. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm probably going into a state of shock or something. One minute I'm walking down the street, the next I'm in an alley being robbed at gunpoint, and then suddenly a homiothermic angel randomly appears and saves my life- er, wallet and camera. I'm just _peachy_."

Now Castiel was very confused. "I do not believe that you possess any qualities similar to that of a peach."

Karen laughed. "Peachy doesn't mean- Oh, never mind. I still think that it's strange that you asked about 'peachy' instead of 'homiothermic.'"

"Homiothermic means that I am warm-blooded. My vessel is warm-blooded, so I suppose that I, in this form, am warm-blooded as well. That one is simple." Castiel said, still kind of confused. Confusion seemed to be his natural state while among humans these days.

"I learned the term in science class. Neat, isn't it?" Karen stepped back. "There. Your tie is all fixed. Now, stand right here." She positioned herself next to him and raised the camera up with the lens pointing towards them. "Say cheese!" She grinned.

"What?"

Karen pushed a button and a light flashed. She stepped away from Castiel a little bit and turned the camera to look at the screen. More buttons were pushed and then she held the camera up to Castiel's face. "Here's the picture. You look like someone just asked you to spell 'hydrochlorothiazides,' another word I learned this week. It's a drug that inhibits the kidneys' ability to retain water." Castiel wasn't sure why Karen found it necessary to keep using complex scientific words she had learned, but he did not comment on it. Maybe it was a teenager thing.

In the picture Karen was smiling happily, while Castiel just looked befuddled. "I'm going to frame it!" Karen said cheerily. "I frame most of the pictures I take of people. I'm going to be a photographer after I graduate!"

"Only if the world's still standing by then." Castiel muttered grimly.

It was Karen's turn to look befuddled. "What? What does that mean?"

"I must go now. Take care, Karen. You might want to get an anti-possession tattoo like Sam and Dean have." Castiel took his cell phone out again. He had to call Dean and figure out where he was.

"A what now? You're leaving already? Who are Sam and Dean?" Karen questioned rapidly.

"Research it. It's a pentagram with certain tendrils coming out of it, like a sun. The demons will be taking over humans worldwide, like a pandemic. Stay safe. The apocalypse is here."

Castiel teleported a few streets away and called Dean. He needed to leave.


End file.
